


Pushing Limits

by x_jeanne_x



Series: Final Fantasy VII Prompts & Oneshots [5]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Loneliness, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-06-02
Packaged: 2020-04-06 20:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19070185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/x_jeanne_x/pseuds/x_jeanne_x
Summary: With Aerith, things always tend to get out of hand for Tseng.





	Pushing Limits

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Pushing Limits (transl.)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19256461) by [x_jeanne_x](https://archiveofourown.org/users/x_jeanne_x/pseuds/x_jeanne_x)



“I know you’re there,” Aerith softly called out while tending to the flower spot in the middle of the church, not looking up. By now, she was used to being monitored by ShinRa, and could tell who exactly was on guard duty, even if she wouldn’t see them for the whole day. There was, for example, Reno, whose smell of cigarettes, tobacco, or other dubious intoxicants was overlaying even the flowers’ scent from time to time. Or Rude, who used to busy his hands with a butterfly knife she could hear him open and close. Aerith also remembered others, the guy typing on his phone all the time, or the fellow who was actually knitting while he had to observe her. Or at least the clicking of needles was the sound she connected with him. If it was something else he did, she probably didn’t want to know more details.  
And then there was Tseng. Who always stood watch in complete silence. Who never let himself get distracted from his work. Whose eyes on her admittedly creeped her out sometimes, as they seemed to know everything. Which most likely also had seen more things over the years than Aerith deemed appropriate. No wonder, considering that he was the one longest on the job so far.  
  
With a sigh, Tseng stepped out of the shadows. “Do you have another letter?” he asked. Normally the leader of the Turks tried to keep interactions with his subjects to a bare minimum, however, this had never seemed to work with Aerith. Normally his subjects were afraid of him - not without reason, as the Turks were notorious for doing ShinRa’s dirty work. Not so Aerith, who ran to him to introduce herself the first day he was on guard duty all those years ago. When she still was a little girl and he nothing more than a rookie at the General Affairs department. Normally, he wasn’t even close to being on friendly terms with his subjects - and that a thought of feeling some attraction to Aerith even crossed his mind still confused Tseng to no end.  
  
And yet, what else could he think of her? After he’d been pretty much a part of her life for the last ten years, having seen her growing up, becoming a strong, independent young woman, who at one point had started to date one of the few persons he would consider something close to a friend (not that this was a word he would use in his life, with his job). Zack, the young SOLDIER who was now Minerva-knows-where, who was considered MIA after he had managed to escape Hojo’s experiments after the Nibelheim incident. Where Tseng decided to turn a blind eye as far as possible, and make good on the promise he had given the SOLDIER: to look after Aerith. Because for some reason unknown to him, Zack had always trusted him. Because the boy had known that doing exactly this was one of his jobs anyway.  
  
“Not today,” the flower girl told him and interrupted his musings. “I only thought…” Aerith began, unsure if she should cross that line and try to get information out of the Turk who practically had “professionality” written all over him. However, she didn’t get to actually ask her question when Tseng shook his head and simply told her “No”, as he could already guess that she wanted to know if he knew something about Zack’s whereabouts.  
In fact, he had already wondered how long it would take her to not only give him the letters, but ask him if he had heard anything, could tell her something. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell her - after all, he wasn’t as cold as everybody assumed. It pained Tseng to see how patient, how hopeful Aerith always was, and wished he could tell her to stop waiting. That it didn’t look good for Zack. But he couldn’t. No, wouldn’t. Because he wasn’t the type to compromise his work - once a Turk, always a Turk, or how they said. And because Tseng himself still had some small hope that Zack would come out of this alive.  
  
Needless to say, this frustrated Aerith as much as it did Tseng, only it was more obvious on her face and the way the girl was walking when she strode up to him and, once directly in front of him, stood on her toes to make herself taller, more impressive. Not that this had the intended effect on the Turk, who had his arms crossed and only looked down to her - which only made Aerith even more furious.  
“What do you mean with ‘no’? You don’t know or you don’t want to tell me?” she demanded, causing Tseng to raise one eyebrow in astonishment, as this was, as far as he could remember, the first time she dared to raise her voice when talking to him. He knew her to be impulsive, but this had never been directed at him until now, and that’s why, a little surprised, he hesitated to answer for a moment. “...You know I can’t share confidential information.” Irritated by that reply, Aerith rolled her eyes. “Why do you always have to be so… so… you?” she complained, for which she got a dry chuckle and a shrug. “That’s my job.”  
With an annoyed shake of her head, the girl turned around and walked back to the flower spot to take her bag. “Well, then do your job and walk me home, will you?”  
Tseng glared at her. “I am not your babysitter,” he stated, but then decided that it would be better to see her home safely - after all, you’d never know with all the vermin hanging around in the Sector 5 slums. “Maybe not my babysitter, but you’d be following me anyway, right? Then I’d rather have you walk me home instead of having a shadow,” Aerith told him and didn’t even look over her shoulder to see if Tseng was following her when she left the church, because she knew he would.  
  
And he did. Quietly, the Turk caught up to her - an unusual gesture, as he tended to keep his distance. But today was a strange day anyway, so he was past caring that much. Aerith glanced at him after they had walked in silence for a while. “Sometimes I really wish you would be the nice guy I think you are more often," she told him. Once again on that day, Tseng could only stare at her. Normally she wasn’t that chatty with him, so he wondered what suddenly had gotten into the girl. And he wasn’t sure he liked the way she was talking to him right now. “Careful, Aerith,” he warned her. “You don’t want to get on my wrong side.” “Or what?” she challenged him. “What will you do to me? Eliminate me? … Ah, no. You’re not allowed to do that, right? What a pity that must be for you, I assume.”  
“You seem to forget that I’m capable of many other unpleasant things apart from killing. And that doesn’t only include physical damage,” Tseng told her, but didn’t seem to impress the flower girl with his words. “How scary,” she stated dryly, and although he later wouldn’t know why exactly, this sarcastic remark caused the Turk to snap. He roughly grabbed her wrist and dragged her into the back alley they were just passing. Shoving Aerith against the next wall, he looked down to her. “You’re playing a dangerous game, girl. Even my patience has limits - why are you so intent on provoking me?”  
  
Much to Tseng’s frustration, apart from a little flinch, this didn’t seem to affect the young woman at all. Instead, a small, satisfied grin crossed her lips. “So you are capable of human reactions after all - I already wondered. If things had been different, it could have been you, you know?” She looked at Tseng to see his eyes widen in surprise first, before a haunted look crossed his face - although only for a few seconds, until he forced his usual expression onto his features again. “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he told her with an exhausted sigh, but was surprised by her once again when, acting on a sudden impulse, Aerith pulled him closer to her and kissed him. It took the Turk a moment to notice that she was fumbling with his lapel, and drew away a little. “Don’t…” he advised her and took hold of her wrists again to stop her. “You don’t want this.”  
“How would you know? I’ve been lonely for too long now, I miss being close to somebody,” the young woman replied and kissed him once more. Tseng felt his resolve weakening and loosened his grip on her, as he knew that there was no way to stop her once she had set her mind onto something. Which, for some reason was him right now. Still one had to try, right? “I’m not him, Aerith,” Tseng said, and earned a sad smile for these words. “You think eighty-eight unreplied letters would let me forget this?” she asked. “But this isn’t about him. So shut up.”  
  
Lips met again, unclear who initiated the kiss this time, followed by hesitant touches and rustling clothes. Bodies were grinding together for a while with an occasional quiet sigh, until Aerith’s hand on his fly brought Tseng’s brain back to reality and he took a step back. Slightly out of breath, he shook his head. “Stop,” he murmured and let go of Aerith, for which he got a confused look from the girl. “What in Minerva’s name is wrong with you?” she asked with a frustrated groan. Once again, the Turk shook his head. “I can’t,” he repeated. “We both know that I’m neither innocent, nor naive,” she pointed out.  
  
Who knew that better than him, Tseng thought. The young couple had not always been as discreet with their affections as he would've wished for. “That’s not the reason,” was the only comment he gave on that, not further elaborating on her statement. Instead, he turned away. “Come on. You should already be home by now.” Now it was Tseng who didn’t wait for her to follow when he started walking again, because he knew she would.  
  
It didn’t take them much longer until they reached the small house where Aerith lived with Elmyra, her adoptive mother. For a second they exchanged glances, before the flower girl entered the front yard. “Aerith,” Tseng called after her, deciding to show some compassion this one time. “He’s alive,” he told her in a low voice, barely audible for her. “I don’t know where he is or if he’ll ever come back, but for now, he’s alive… That’s all I can share with you.”  
Her face lit up and she gave the otherwise so serious Turk a grateful nod. "Thank you," she said softly, before finally rushing to the front door.


End file.
